


Hello, Lian Here

by SiSiren



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe in general, Earth Kingdom raised Zuko, Gen, His name is Lian, No edits we die like Lu Ten, Ozai (Avatar) Being a Terrible Parent, Prince (?) Zuko, no, no beta we die like lu ten
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-09-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:42:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26386588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SiSiren/pseuds/SiSiren
Summary: Fire Prince Ozai cast his firstborn from the palace hours after he was born, claiming the child was a nonbender. The people of the Fire Nation were told the child was born still, a sign from Agni that they weren’t ready for children.Lian never knew his parents, was shipped between families until he ended up in a strictly Earth Kingdom town as a refugee, an orphan. He had never been special until he ran into a small child in a cave.
Relationships: The Gaang & Zuko (Avatar), Toph Beifong & Zuko
Comments: 5
Kudos: 105





	Hello, Lian Here

Caldera City was always hot, even in the darkest of nights in the middle of Rénzĭ. It had to be if it was to host the royal family and be the Nation's capital. It was the place most considered to be at the heart of the planet, where the heat was the hottest and then it spread out. It’s why most firebenders stayed close to their capital, or as close as they could, and it was rumoured to be Agni’s favourite spot.

It was always hot, except the day Princess Ursa gave birth.

The entire city knew--news and rumours traveled fast, especially when it was about the royal family and their soon-to-be child. None of them would admit they knew, of course, not when they were supposed to know nothing, but servants talked and they passed on their news to those outside the palace.

They were all ready to celebrate the newest birth of the child when whispers broke out--the cold air, the silence coming from the palace, the solemn tension that came over the town as Fire Lord Azulon walked out and addressed the crowd that was able to be in the courtyard.

The newest member of the royal family did not survive the process--

The newest Fire Prince was dead without even being named.

The news spread quickly, but nobody noticed the servant holding a bundle fleeing from the palace as fast as he could.

~`~`~`~`

Ozai looked down on the child in his arms, the child that was so quiet as it peered up at him. Black strands of hair stuck out from the red blanket it was swaddled in and gold eyes looked out from Ursa’s eye shape. It was small, minuscule actually, and it wouldn’t be hard to just drop it and be done with it.

He wasn’t getting the throne anyway, so why would he need an heir. He didn’t want a child, he wanted something that could continue on his legacy, yes, but not ever a child. They were despicable things.

When Ursa had told him she was pregnant--a disturbingly kind and happy smile on her face he had never seen before--he had hated it immensely. It may have been his child, but Ursa was so disgustingly disloyal to the royal family, writing her letters to the peasant, betraying him with such small, subtle doings that he didn’t want a child if it was the product of the both of them.

And he didn’t want  _ this _ child who was born on the coldest day Caldera had ever seen, the child that had not made a singular noise, the child whose eyes glowed with the royal Agni-gifted gold but didn’t burn. They were soft, with no spark at all, and he  _ hated _ it.

This child, if known, would be too much trouble for this world, a nonbender and a disgrace to his family and--eventually--his throne. 

Ursa had wanted to name the child Zuko, a fitting name for a failure from birth.

The Fire Lord came up behind him yet he didn’t glance back. The child had turned its eyes to the Fire Lord, the red face scrunching up, yet it still stayed silent. He had heard newborns were supposed to be loud.

Not only was the child born from Ursa, born on a cold day, and was a nonbender, but it was also defective.

“My Lord, if I may,” he said, bowing his head to the Fire Lord. He waited for a reply, a simple nod back, until he spoke the rest of the words that wanted to be caught in his throat in some display of rebellion. He had never been weak, though.

“This child is clearly a nonbender. He has been frowned upon by Agni and, as such, should be cast from your family and from your palace. What do you think, my Lord?”

The Fire Lord studied the child, staring at it and its eyes for the longest time that he thought he had gotten it wrong--maybe the child  _ was  _ a bender, just weak, maybe the Fire Lord could detect that. What if he was wrong?--before the Fire Lord turned his gaze back onto him. He held his breath and avoided the Fire Lord’s eyes.

“That is an excellent idea, Fire Prince Ozai, it is your child, do what you wish to him.”

Ozai could breathe again--he had never done well with failure, and a child named Zuko would only amplify that. He nodded once more to the Fire Lord, before calling for one of the servants in the corner to watch over his wife.

“You,” he ordered, and watched in amusement as the servant startled, falling into a bow that reeked of unease and lack of ability before hurrying over. He shoved the child into the servants arms, two pairs of wide eyes meeting him, “Take him away from here, out of the Fire Lord’s palace and out of Caldera. No one should notice you.”

He bowed again both to him and the Fire Lord, muttering, “Your Highness, Your Majesty,” and, before the servant was out of the room, Ozai stopped him.

“Stop.” He turned, slowly, the child looking like nothing but a bundle in his arms. “What is your name?”

He was frozen as he blinked at him before he bowed again, “I am called Son Li, your Highness.”

Ozai nodded, waving a hand as he committed the name to memory, “You may go.”

The servant hurried away from him and the room was silent once more except for the stiff, harsh breaths of the other servants huddled in the corner, against the wall, everywhere.

They would all have to be rid of, if this was to be believed.

He turned back to the Fire Lord, bowed and waited until he was signaled to speak. “Would it be possible, my Lord, if we told the people that Ursa lost the child?”

Again, the Fire Lord was silent except for a shorter amount of time than when he was observing the child, “That will work. Condolences about your loss, Prince Ozai.”

He turned and left, briskly and always with an air of grace that Ozai could never perfect. It was infuriating, that he’d never be a match for the Fire Lord or the Crowned Prince.

He intended to leave, to go and “mourn” the loss of his child but was stopped by the convenient stirring of his wife. The servants flooded to her but he stayed by the door, head held regally. He could hear her panicking, begging and crying. 

“Where is my baby?” she yelled, thrashing until she looked directly at him. “Ozai,  _ where is my son? _ ”

~`~`~`~`

Son Li didn’t run with the royal child, not even as his peers stopped and stared and moved out of his way, not even once he exited the palace because those invited were already in mourning. He didn’t run because he wasn’t supposed to be noticed and he was good at that.

He was from the Earth Kingdom, a farmhand that had been captured and sent to the capital of the Fire Nation to become a servant of the royal family. He didn’t know where his family ended up, if they were even alive anymore, he didn’t know if his baby sister--just barely born and barely older than the silent child he held in his arms--had been spared or if the Fire Nation soldiers had killed her.

He and a few other males were chosen to work at the palace, the  _ Fire Lord’s _ palace, the ruler that had ordered his nation to attack, who oversaw everything after his own father started the war.

And now one of the younger Princes--Prince Lu Ten was not the youngest anymore. Prince Ozai's child was born male,  _ this baby _ he was fleeing with, was younger than Prince Ozai and Prince Lu Ten, he was now the youngest Prince--had ordered for his firstborn, his only child, to be taken from the castle.

Maybe their entire family was born heartless, maybe they were raised that way.

(Son Li hoped it was the second just so this child could have a chance.)

He was great at staying in the shadows, laying low and sneaking around. It’s why his lack of culture, his lack of understanding, was always overlooked because it had never been noticed, because he had never been noticed.

So it wasn’t that hard for him to sneak out of the palace grounds and away from the city. He didn’t know who to bring the child to, if he should even bring the child to someone--Fire Prince Ozai hadn’t specified. Son Li couldn't, in good faith, leave the child on the side of the road, outside of Caldera, not on the coldest day they had had in years. He could feel the child’s body heat being leeched away from him, warming Son Li and the air around him and it worried him.

A thought hit him and he grinned, relief lighting up in his chest. Ai had parents living just outside of Caldera she visited frequently, had even taken him to meet them when they had both been able to take a day off. They were nice, older than possibly Fire Lord Azulon, and had loved him on sight, even when they found out he was from the Earth Kingdom. They had told him he was always welcome back, to come to them if he ever needed help.

Them and Ai were the people who convinced him not all Fire Nation was bad--just the ones at its core.

He arrived at their house a little later and paused. Should he burden them with the Fire Prince? Would they accept him or rat Son Li out. Would they even understand the urgency?

(He didn’t think he did either, but Fire Prince Ozai never asked a servant for their name.)

He knocked before he could think any longer and he barely had to wait before the door opened.

Ai’s mother looked at him for a second and then the babe that was now asleep in his arms and stood aside. He sighed, exhausted, and entered the much-warmer house. The door closed behind him and he relaxed.

“Son Li, is everything all right? Why do you have a baby with you?” she asked, and, without warning, the whole story spilled out.

“He’s the Fire Prince, Princess Ursa gave birth to him and Prince Ozai cast him out and he told me to bring him outside of Caldera City and I can’t be gone for long and I don’t know what to do!” He wasn’t crying, or at least, he didn’t think he was. It was kind of hard to even think at the moment, so he didn’t believe he was doing anything.

He didn’t even notice Ai’s father had come into the room until he heard something drop and break. He looked over quickly and noticed the shocked expression. He just stared before looking at his wife and nodding.

Ai’s mother stepped forward, a calm, steady hand on his arm and a keen look in her orange eyes. “We’ll take care of him, Son Li, don’t worry. Go back to the palace and  _ stay safe. _ ” She takes the baby out of his arms and hugs him softly with the baby between them. He felt like he could melt in her embrace--so much like his mother’s that he didn’t want to leave. It ended far too soon and he turned to leave.

Before he exited their house, possibly--and hoping to Oma and Shu that he was wrong--seeing them for the last time, he looked at them both and warned, just in case because there was a large ball of unease in his chest, “Get rid of him as fast as you can, _please_.”

He left.

~`~`~`~`

Sato looked down at the child she had just been given with a warning, Kim standing at her shoulder. He was sleeping, leeching warmth off of her and yet he was exuding warmth as well.

“What did he mean by get rid of him?” she asked. She knew why, a royal cast from the palace would not be allowed to live in fear of a coup or in risk of someone finding out. It was a miracle he had survived this long, that Prince Ozai had even cast him out to begin with instead of killing him.

Kim was silent for a long moment, “Do you still have relatives to the town up North that would take him?”

Sato nodded and clutched the baby a little tighter.

“You can tell them Ai had a child, that the father was unknown and we can’t afford to take care of him right now. It will hurt her reputation, but it will save him,” he said, and with undertones, because nobody knew if anybody was listening or could catch their conversation, “and he could save us one day.”

She nodded once more and looked down at the child in her arms once more. He looked peaceful, soft, not at all like how the royal family was portrayed and--

Son Li didn’t tell them if he had a name and the child, he had to be called something.

“Lian. His name is Lian.”

~`~`~`~`

The next week, when their house was raided and they were taken before Fire Prince Ozai with Son Li and other servants, Lian was gone, with her family up North. It was with much relief that, after so long of torture, they were relieved of their pain and lives.

She watched from the Spirit World as Prince Ozai ordered the small group Fire Lord Azulon had given him to search for his son, to search and kill.

She really hoped her aunt would be willing to listen to her instructions.

**Author's Note:**

> This is an idea I have fleshed out pretty well, however, this is an idea that will, sadly, be on the backburner whilst school starts up and I continue working on Kidnap the Prince, a Great Idea.  
> However, I still hope to update this at least once every other week, maybe every week if my schedule works it out.  
> I hope you are well and you enjoyed this :3


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